


give it a shot

by 10vesick



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Blowjobs, Feelings Realization, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Kun is a dumb bitch, Light Angst, M/M, Mirror Sex, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:01:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26201557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/10vesick/pseuds/10vesick
Summary: “Kun?”“Yeah?”Ten takes a deep breath. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 7
Kudos: 348





	give it a shot

**Author's Note:**

> this one’s for [lidy!!](https://twitter.com/nctpatata)
> 
> thank you so much for letting me write this for you, fue super divertido y una experiencia increíble. y conocerte fue el plus más grande 🥺🤲💜 
> 
> please enjoy it a lot!!!!

  
It starts at a party.

Vision Dance Studio holds it on the last night of October. It’s a costume party meant to celebrate Halloween, an event that everyone obsessed over weeks before it even happened. There was a certain anticipation to it between the dancers (the kind you could only associate with young adults desperate for a break), and when it finally gets here, it doesn’t disappoint.

The front door to the studio is wrapped in orange lights that look like miniature pumpkins, and at the feet lie three jack-o-lanterns aglow and flickering into the biting Halloween night air. Despite the sign at the door that reads _Go back while there's still time_ , the loud music and the laughter invite you in, promising a good time and a bunch of alcohol.

Ten’s concept for the night is _sexy cat_ – black tank top, black ripped jeans, a cat tail and ears. He has whiskers scribbled on his cheeks with a thin marker, maybe a pen, and his nails are long like claws and painted black. 

Kun looks at him amusedly as he talks with Lisa. Ten gets a few compliments and a ton of looks as he moves around the dance floor like he owns the place, enjoying himself like it’s the first time in a while since he’s had this much fun.

His happiness is contagious, and Kun excuses himself from his talk to walk toward him and offer both a drink and a tease.

“Black cat,” he says behind Ten as soon as he reaches him. “ _So_ unexpected coming from you.”

Already rolling his eyes, Ten turns around to meet Kun. Or a yellow version of him anyway. “And you wearing the Minion costume for the second year in a row is better... How?”

Kun looks down at his clothes, the yellow sweater and blue overalls, and shrugs. “Everybody loves Minions. Besides, it causes an impression, you know,” he says, his voice getting that teasing tone Ten knows too well. “Otherwise how would you remember I wore it last year, too?”

“Because this little yellow buttplug costume got you further into the contest last year!” Ten complains, slightly nudging Kun with his shoulder. “I was the fucking Mona Lisa!”

“Is that who you were? I thought you were the old lady from Tangled.”

“The old lady’s name is Gothel, and she’d _still_ be a better costume than yours.”

Kun laughs, offering Ten one of the two cups of beer he’s holding, calling for truce. 

Despite their constant banter, they’re good friends. They don’t have classes together– as they don’t even go to the same college– but they have some friends in common and attend this same dance studio, so meeting each other was inevitable in the first place. They meet every week and, despite spending most of the time bickering, they work together on choreography quite often, and eat out together after class.

So yeah, they’re good friends. 

Nothing that a few countless drinks, some lame party games, and bickering that gets a little too physical can’t change, though.

Before either of them can stop and catch a breath or think this through, they hide behind locked bathroom doors, dry humping each other like their lives depend on it. Kun is too aware of what it feels like– to shamelessly grind against Ten, both fully-clothed yet too drunk to care. They kiss messily and desperately, moans drowned by the loud music outside, and when Ten bites down on his bottom lip, Kun spills in his pants in a matter of seconds. The only reason he manages to retain his dignity is that Ten is not too far behind, cumming right after him with a pretty whimper and a sigh.

It starts at a party, and it doesn’t end until long after that.

  
  
  


* * *

  
  


Kun is practically a putty in Ten’s hands.

It’s that goddamn thing he does with his tongue that has Kun curling in over him, the way he sucks on his dick and doesn’t even seem to care when the other grows so desperate he starts fucking into his throat. Up until a few seconds ago, Kun had been leaning against the wall and casually carding his fingers through Ten’s hair, but now he’s holding on for dear life because he’s worried his legs will buckle out from under him if he lets go. Ten has learned a lot about him in these past few months, has him studied to the bone, and it’s just slightly scary for the older.

Especially when Ten takes a moment to lift his eyes and look up at him. 

He’s got drool leaking from the corner of his lips and his mouth is stuffed full of dick, but he still manages to raise an eyebrow at Kun and, _fuck,_ it’s unbelievably attractive. His eyes are daring and his eyelashes are thick and dark and something about his expression is cocky and it all pisses Kun off in the most endearing of ways. 

Not to mention, of course, how he’s about three seconds away from coming down his throat.

And when he does, it’s with a groan, and Ten swallows it down easily before pulling off and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. It’s not like he doesn’t know he’s done a good job, because there’s a smirk on his lips when his arm drops. His unwavering confidence in himself tells him he’s literally sucked the living soul out of Kun, and it’s embarrassing to admit he’s right. It takes Kun a long moment before he comes down off the dizzying high of release, and it’s not until then that he realizes he’s staring.

He looks away with a clear of his throat.

“Good, huh?” Ten teases, climbing to his feet.

Kun scoffs without really answering, trying to look like it wasn’t anything new. Like these moments with Ten aren’t what he looks forward to the most when he wakes up in the morning. 

Instead, he grabs Ten by the hips and shoves him against the wall, switching their positions.

Knowing him, the younger will be as loud as he wants, not caring who can hear them, and Kun’s glad that his roommate is out for the night. Winwin basically kicks himself out every time he hears that Ten is coming, always leaving the other with nothing but a threat ( _“Don’t you dare do anything gross in my bed”_ ) and the same worried look he gives Kun whenever they talk about Ten.

About their agreement, settled two months ago, after the Halloween party.

Ten brought it up first, the implication loud and clear– _About last night... Wouldn’t it be nice if we gave it a shot?–_ and Kun had surprised both his friend and himself by agreeing to it so nonchalantly. Ten was proposing to do it again, no strings attached. They were friends, and they were consenting adults, and Ten was attractive, so why not give it a go? 

Yeah, it’d be nice.

They had sex for the first time– _real_ sex, no clothing in the way– that same night. They went to Ten’s apartment and made out, and Kun looked into the younger’s eyes and murmured in his ear, and moved the pillow so he felt comfortable and made sure Ten came first. It wasn’t at all what Ten had expected, but it was definitely nice.

It was nice the second time, two nights later, when Ten didn’t even give him a chance to slip into sweet and tender mode. He went down on Kun as sloppily and nastily as he knew how, and Kun looked a little stunned, sprawled on his couch with his jeans pulled down past his hips, hanging onto Ten’s shoulders for dear life.

It was also nice the third time, when the younger texted him his address and Kun walked into a very naked Ten _about to take a shower,_ and they blew each other under the water. It was nice the fourth time in Kun’s car, and the fifth time on Ten’s couch, and the eleventh time in... 

You get the idea.

Kun doesn’t get why Winwin worries so much— it’s just sex. He and Ten are friends, and they go out for lunch sometimes to complain about college and dancing and life, and then they go back to either one of their apartments and fool around. It’s just a thing they do.

He connects back to reality, to this fiftieth time, the moment Ten sinks his fingers into his hair, scrapes his chipped nails gently against his scalp. With the head of his dick barely inside Kun’s mouth, it’s too early to be sounding so needy, but the purr-like, “ _Mmm_ ” rumbles in Ten’s throat anyway. Kun closes his eyes and tells his brain to stop thinking, tells himself to simply bask in the feeling of the hand combing through his hair, the shape of Ten between his lips. No reason to worry about anything at all.

It’s just sex.

It’s just a thing they do.

  
  


* * *

  
  


It’s been 4 months, yet they keep doing it.

Kun has Ten’s chest pushed right up against the mirror in the dance studio, the leaking head of his cock leaving streaks on its surface. They stayed after hours to work on choreography, and there’s no one here, the room silent except for Ten’s needy whimpers, Kun’s panting against the back of his neck, and the obscene slick sounds of his fingers inside the other.

Ten looks at himself in the mirror, at his fucked up expression. He’s enjoying this a little more than usual, hands clawing at the surface in front of him, desperately trying to hold onto something. His breath fogs the mirror, his mouth can’t stay closed, and Kun adds a third finger unannounced that makes him gasp. Ten shuts his eyes, settling for pushing his palms flat against the glass. The stretch is so good and Kun knows just where to hit him so that he feels it spiking through his body.

He isn't even exaggerating— Kun is actually great at handling him. Ten can, admittedly, compare him to a pretty decent amount of others. But before this, he'd never had the luxury of getting to the experimenting stage, where Ten can figure out if he likes being blindfolded (he does not) or having his hair pulled while he's giving a blowjob (he does) and the other just rolls with it all.

Kun is willing to try just about anything once, and afterwards remembers what Ten liked and what he didn't. When it's time to reciprocate, it turns out most of Kun’s kinky wishlist items are actually sort of ordinary, but they're still fun, and the older’s enthusiasm for them makes them mind-blowingly hot, so Ten is more than happy to indulge him in whatever he wants.

Like letting him finger him open in front of the practice room mirrors.

But as Ten opens his eyes again, trying to make sure that they’re both enjoying it, he makes the mistake of catching Kun’s gaze in the reflection.

His eyes are hungry, like always, with eyebrows scrunched low in concentration, but there’s a flash of something else that sends chills running down Ten’s back. A peculiar thought starts forming at the back of the younger’s mind, something he’d been afraid would happen sooner or later, something that’s not entirely clear, but possible. He doesn’t have the time to completely wrap his mind around it as Kun drives into him hard, making Ten spill out against the glass, cock untouched.

He leans his forehead against the cool surface, breathing fast, riding it out.

“Oh, wow. I didn’t think you’d come this fast,” Kun mumbles, his voice teasing as he takes his fingers out. 

“S… Shut up,” Ten pants against the glass, voice hoarse. “Sorry. You haven’t come yet.”

Kun shrugs, and he places his hands on Ten’s hips to offer him support, his touch soft and gentle. “It’s fine. I’ll help you clean up, then we can leave.”

But that’s not what Ten wants to hear. Not right now.

“Don’t be dumb. Fuck me.”

“... Are you sure? I don’t need to,” Kun says, his palms rubbing warmth against his hip bones. He presses a kiss in the middle of the younger’s shoulder blades and Ten has a really, _really_ bad feeling about this.

Shit. The thought lures in again.

“Just do it.”

And Kun does as he’s told.

When he pushes in, Ten has to bite his lip to keep from crying out, so oversensitive he can feel every touch, every move, every thrust– but it’s worth it. It’s worth it, to feel Kun pressed up against his back like this, to not get treated so softly and gently, to listen to the sound of his voice and his breath and the clapping on his cheeks.

It’s worth it, because it makes him stop thinking, and the thought disappears into the background where he decides to bury it until it comes back to haunt him.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Kun?”

“Yeah?”

Ten takes a deep breath. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Kun stops rubbing circles on his back.

After pretty satisfying sex, they were now enjoying a nice, quiet cuddling session, which didn’t happen often enough. Ten had his head on Kun’s chest, both were almost dozing off– but no, not anymore. Ten is suddenly sitting up, and Kun can only stare at him.

“Oh,” is all he manages to say.

Ten stands up, untangling his limbs from the other’s and reaching out for his briefs to tug them on, heading for his pants next. “It’s been fun,” he babbles all the while. “But I think I’m over it. You good with that?”

“Oh,” Kun mumbles again after a few seconds. Then, “Yeah. Okay.”

“Cool,” Ten says. He hasn’t looked at the older once the entire time, and now he’s shrugging on his jacket. “See you at the studio tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

Ten heads towards the door, but hesitates when he reaches it. He turns to look at Kun in the eye for the first time since he launched himself from the bed. “Kun…? ” he starts, and then stops.

“Yeah?”

Ten turns back towards the door and opens it. “Doesn’t matter. See you.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Hey,” Winwin mumbles as he enters the room. “Everything okay?”

He’s just come back from the safe refuge that is Lucas’s apartment, not sure what to expect when he walks into his own. Earlier in the day, Yangyang sent a pretty cryptic text that simply read _Kun ge’s vibes are off_ , which he didn’t really know how to interpret.

So far, he’s walked into his roommate sprawled over his bed, facing the ceiling as if he were questioning his entire existence, while their youngest friend and neighbor pays him no mind. Yangyang’s playing with Winwin’s Nintendo Switch (which he doesn’t even ask for permission to borrow anymore), and simply nods his head towards Kun as he hears the other walk in.

"Kun ge’s got his heart broken or something.”

Winwin’s almost sure he heard wrong. “ _What_?”

Still laying on his bed, Kun sighs so deeply his friend is scared he’ll lose his breath. “Don’t listen to him,” he turns his head to face Winwin, though the expression on his face is unreadable. “It’s nothing.”

Not like Winwin believes him, but he lets it pass and just nods. “... Where’s Ten? He’s always still here when I come back.”

The name feels weird to Kun’s ears, like he’s never heard it before, or like it’s a foreign word he doesn’t know. “He left early today,” he mumbles, moving his head back so he can stare at the ceiling again. “You don’t have to keep worrying about staying out of the apartment, by the way.”

“What does that mean?”

Kun takes a deep breath. “Ten and I won’t be…” he eyes at the youngest on the other side of the room. “Doing _that_ anymore.”

Yangyang isn’t solely focused on his video game, though. Still glued to the console in his hands, he blurts out. “You can just say you’re not fucking anymore. You know that, right? That I know sex is a thing that happens?”

“ _Yangyang_ ,” Winwin says, fighting the ghost of a smile that threatens to appear on his face. He’s lucky Kun’s too busy digging holes into the other’s head. “Do you mind?”

He nods his head towards the door, and the younger groans but obeys. “Fine. Hendery’s coming over anyways. Can I take the Switch?”

“Just give it back before 5. I have an Animal Crossing date.”

“You got it, boss,” Yangyang smiles and makes a finger gun, heading towards the door to leave. Before he closes it, though, he makes sure to call out for his oldest friend. “Good luck with you broken heart, Kun ge!”

And he slams the door shut before he can get a pillow thrown at his face.

Kun rolls his eyes and huffs because it isn’t true, because his heart can’t be broken when it wasn’t even in it in the first place. Not really. He and Ten had a casual, adult relationship based on sex, and it was awesome, but now it’s over. And, really, so what if Ten doesn’t want to sleep with him anymore? It’s not Kun’s decision. It’s not as though they ever had anything binding anyway. Casual sex is all it was, is all it ever would be. Ten never owed Kun anything, certainly not the promise of a next time. He’s just confused about why it happened all of a sudden.

His heart’s not broken because it wasn’t in it.

Winwin drops his book bag somewhere near his bed and walks toward Kun’s. He knows his friend probably doesn’t want to talk about it, but he also knows that he should _._ It shows in the way he sinks back into the bed, in the way he avoids eye contact by putting his arm over his eyes. Winwin sits down next to him, slowly, and sighs as he thinks of what to say. 

"I _really_ don’t want to be that guy, but..." he mumbles, his voice apologetic before he even says the words. “I told you so.”

Kun shakes his head a little, trying to deny it, but he doesn’t uncover his eyes. "I’m just wrapping my head around it."

“It shouldn’t be this hard.”

Winwin’s right. It shouldn’t.

It shouldn’t be this hard to just accept that your friend doesn’t want to have sex with you anymore. It shouldn’t be hard, the same way it wasn’t hard to accept doing it in the first place. They have always been just friends, have never owed each other anything. 

It’s just that Kun can’t stop thinking about how goddamn gorgeous Ten looked with his head tipped back, and the pale lines of his throat exposed as he moaned at each thrust and curl. He can’t stop thinking about the pride it brought him to be the one making Ten feel that way. It was bad enough that he could recognize that Ten was attractive before, but the more he keeps thinking, the more he keeps getting this weird… _feeling_. Something warm, almost painful, that makes his chest feel heavy and short of breath.

That’s the real problem, that’s what he can’t stop thinking about. The fact that he won’t be looking at Ten in such an intimate light anymore. The fact that someone else might. And a particular thought falls over Kun like a piano over his head.

This can’t be heartbreak, because his heart wasn’t in it.

But what if it kind of was?

  
  


* * *

  
  


Kun is maybe, just a little bit, kind of an idiot.

Okay, he isn’t fooling anyone. He’s a complete and total idiot. How could he let this happen? How could he have allowed this to build over the past few months, without even considering that things would inevitably go this way? Hadn’t he seen enough movies where this was the trite plotline?

The sex was good. Great, even. The sex was mind-blowing. 

A part of Kun was grateful that he got to see that side of Ten. How he looked spread out on his back. The way his bangs clung to his forehead with sweat. The sounds he made. The precome leaking out of the tip of his cock, the smoothness of his bared skin, the hard lines of his muscle. They all came together to form a beautiful image, laid out right in front of Kun, and he was thankful to have had the chance to witness that.

But, somehow, the moments he remembers to better detail are a different kind.

Ten clinging to him after his climax, sleepy, burying his face inside the crook of Kun’s neck and pressing their burning bodies together. Ten drawing circles on his chest. Ten stretched out on his bed with a tablet, eyes flickering as his hand slid over the screen to draw pretty pictures after taking a shower. Ten smiling, Ten laughing, Ten dancing—

Kun likes Ten.

It’s not like they ever had a rule that forbid him to but, fuck, how could he not? How could he not like him when Ten sounded so pretty when he said Kun’s name? How could he not like him, when Ten’s lips curled when Kun said something dumb? How could he not like him, when his skin was bitten and marked by Ten, pretty reminders that what they had was real and not a dream they could just wake up from? 

Of course he likes Ten– he’s beautiful and warm and confident and good at small talk, good at making people feel comfortable around him.

Kun thought hooking up was enough. But when that’s gone, he realizes how little it was.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Kun always knew the arrangement wasn’t going to be eternal, but he hadn’t ever imagined that it would just…end. 

The worst part of it all is that Ten is still Ten, but not quite. He’s there cracking dumb jokes in the studio before class. He’s focused and diligent during training. He’s singing loud and beautiful in the halls, he’s winking at Lucas, he’s putting his arm around Xiaojun’s shoulders and ruffling Yangyang’s hair. He’s got a jab for every time Winwin walks into the room and a smirk for every time he manages to annoy him.

But he’s stopped interacting with Kun. He doesn’t even touch him at all anymore.

Kun doesn’t really seem to notice until Ten flinches away when he reaches out to tap him on the shoulder. He doesn’t let Kun wrap his arms around him when he annoys him too much, or playfully hit his thigh when they’re sitting next to each other– thing they don’t do anymore, either. Now, Ten sits on the other side of the room, keeps his hands firmly planted on his knees, plays with his own fingers.

Days pass, then weeks.

Kun thought the whole point of Ten breaking it off was just to be friends again, but they don’t even hang out as much anymore.

Their interactions have reduced to fifteen minutes, barely long enough to catch-up, and there are silences that didn’t use to exist before. There are long moments when a space that would usually be filled with words is conspicuously empty, and neither of them seem quite sure what to do about it.

Ten is still there, but it’s not the same anymore, and Kun is afraid they might have ruined what they had.

  
  


* * *

  
  


After a month, Kun can’t take it anymore.

He knows he has to confront Ten if he ever wants to feel like he can breathe again, but just the thought of it makes him want to crawl under his bed and hide forever. And that’s the thing about being a mature, responsible adult who used to be in a sexual relationship with another adult: you have to deal with adult shit, and you're supposed to do it in an adult manner. So hiding under your bed is probably out.

Except Kun hasn't ever done anything like this before, and even though he thought he knew the rules, now he isn't quite so sure about them. He doesn’t know how to handle the fact that it turns out he didn’t actually follow said rules, and that maybe that’s the reason Ten dumped him (well, not _dumped_ him, because they weren’t together. More like left him. Broke their agreement. You know what he means). 

It’s been a month since Ten last met his eyes, and Kun is determined to find out why.

So one night, after everyone has left the studio and there’s only Ten, still training until his body hurts, Kun traps him inside the practice room. 

He presses his back to the door as the music comes to an end, cutting off his only escape route. Ten stands at the opposite side of the room, chest heaving after dancing non stop for a few hours now, and he stares at Kun like he’s someone he doesn’t know.

“Why are you avoiding me?” Kun asks, no beating around the bush. He’s far more straightforward than others may think he is, and Ten tenses at the question. Kun didn’t want to do it like this, but the only way he feels like he can ever be in the same room as Ten is by forcing it.

Still, the younger walks toward the back of the room, where his things are, and he wipes off his sweat with a towel and takes a sip of water, trying to appear oblivious.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Ten says, firm and resolute. Trying to sound believable.

“Ten,” Kun sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I’m not going to leave until you talk to me.”

The other visibly swallows the lump in his throat. “There’s nothing to talk about. I haven’t been avoiding you.”

“Bullshit.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I want you to tell me the truth!” Kun exclaims, growing exasperated. “I get that you don’t want me anymore. You said that you were over it and that’s fine, I can understand that. But what I can’t understand is why you keep acting like we weren’t friends before. Honestly, ever since you stopped our thing you’ve been–”

“ _Our_ thing?” Ten scoffs to interrupt him, his voice sounding uncharacteristically bitter. “You mean the thing where you just used me for sex?”

Wait.

Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait— _wait_.

Kun is so taken aback he shakes his head frantically, near hurting his neck in the process. “Use you for...? Excuse me?”

Ten lets out a frustrated sigh. He pulls at the elastic band that holds his hair together, lets it down and messes with it, just to have something to do. 

“Look, I know it was an agreement, I know I said yes,” he fidgets with the hair band between his fingers, averting the other’s gaze. He seems embarrassed. “It was stupid of me to think it could lead to something else. It’s whatever.”

But no, it’s _not_ whatever. Because **what** is he talking about, and why is he making it seem like he’s the one with the right to be annoyed and confused, and not Kun? Like he’s the one getting his heart caught in his throat every time they’re together?

“I never...” Kun grits out. “When did I ever–”

“Oh my God, Kun,” his friend shoots him a deadly look, voice growing exasperated. He probably should have expected Kun to make this difficult. “Are you seriously going to make me go through all of the times I tried to spend time with you instead of just fucking? Do I really need to remind you of the fourth time we slept together, when I asked you if you wanted to grab dinner first, just the two of us, and you literally said, ‘No, let’s just get into it’?”

“I didn’t—”

“Or when I asked you to stay the night and you shrugged me off and said it’d be better if you went back to your apartment?”

“That was—”

“Or the very first time, the way this whole thing started, when I said I liked you and you said you just wanted to fuck.”

Kun feels a little bit like he’s falling down the stairs. 

“... I said _what_?”

Ten rubs a hand over his face, wipes violently at his eyes. “Hooking up was _your_ idea, Kun.” 

The older shakes his head, not just because it sounds ridiculous, but also because there’s no way that could’ve happened. There’s no way he did all that on purpose, no way Ten had been throwing hints that he wanted to spend more time with him and not notice. Kun’s 95% sure that it was Ten, the one who proposed the idea of being friends with benefits and nothing else.

Okay, maybe 80%.

70%?

Ten is gaping at him like Kun has just cursed his mother, which makes the older think that maybe, maybe, it’s a lot less than 50%.

“We were having coffee, the morning after the Halloween party, and I said I liked you, and you pretended not to hear me,” Ten says, and his voice breaks at the end. “So then I brought up the night before and said it’d be nice if we could give it a shot. And you just thought about it for a moment before saying _Casual sex? Sure, why not?_ ”

… Fuck.

Kun remembers all of a sudden, remembers that day a little too clearly.

They’d been at the usual coffee shop, sitting at their usual table. Things had been surprisingly less awkward than Kun had thought they’d be– it’s not every day that he hooked up with a friend, so he didn’t know what the rules were for the following day. He didn’t mention it, and Ten didn’t mention it either, and they just agreed on grabbing coffee and hanging out the way they always did. So at the usual shop, at their usual table, Ten had ordered his usual drink. Vanilla latte, with a cute cat drawn on top with cream.

After a second of comfortable silence, with his hands wrapped around the cup and looking down, Kun _had_ heard Ten confess. His words were quiet, but clear– _I like you_.

… And yeah, Kun had ignored them.

Because this wasn’t the first time his friend confessed his undying love for the hot beverage. He’d done it more than once, in a thousand different ways. So if Kun had heard him say _I love you_ to his coffee more than once, how was he to know that Ten was talking to _him_ , and not the warm liquid between his hands? 

Kun ignored it. He ignored it because Ten was, yet again, talking to coffee like it was the love of his life and it had nothing to do with him. And then Ten had brought up the night before– the first night they ever hooked up– and said it’d be nice to give it a shot. No extra explanation, no extra confession, just a thought that Kun took a second to process.

_We hooked up last night. He’d like to give it a shot. Give_ what _a shot? We’re just friends._

So the answer was clear. Casual sex.

He remembers it, the look on Ten’s face. He raised his eyebrows in surprise and sat back a little, and dragged his cup over the table so fast a little bit of it spilled. Kun had surprised himself by saying that out loud, but he’d just thought he was putting into words what Ten was suggesting. He was proposing to do it again, no strings attached. They were friends, and they were consenting adults, and Ten was attractive, so why not give it a go? 

And he’d agreed.

The younger had laughed a nervous laugh and nodded. He’d said _Cool_ , and that was it. 

Except, maybe, it wasn’t cool after all.

“You just kept… Deflecting,” his friend suddenly says, defeated, and it brings Kun back to the moment, back to the hurt looking Ten in front of him. His voice is small and it trembles near the end, but he clears his throat and continues like Kun won’t notice. He does. “Whenever I brought up anything that was even remotely related to how I felt about you... You kept trying to distract me from my feelings with sex, and that was fine, like, I was really fine with it in the beginning. I thought that I would be really okay. I wanted to take as much as you'd give me, even if it was never nearly enough, but it was starting to hurt. And you’ve got to know by now that it wasn’t _just_ casual sex for me, because I’m kind of stupidly in love with you, have been for a while now. And I’m just going to keep getting more stupidly in love with you if I keep having you close, and when you eventually find someone else, it’s going to wreck me. So there...” he shrugs, and tries to blink away the sting in his eyes. “That’s why I’ve been avoiding you. Happy?”

Kun doesn’t say anything, too stunned to even move.

It’s… too much for his brain to unpack, every part of him pausing while his thoughts catch up. His eyes and mouth are frozen, wide open in an expression of stunned surprise, and with each second of silence, Ten becomes increasingly embarrassed.

"Look, I get that we were fucking around, and it was cool, and then I had to go ruin the fun by not being able to control my feelings or whatever,” Ten mumbles, and his eyes are glued to the floor and his voice trembles, but he doesn’t stop. “So uh, don’t feel like you owe me anything, or that you have to, like, apologize or whatever, because you’re not my boyfriend, and you don’t have to. I don’t expect anything from you, okay?"

Kun stares at him.

Ten waits for him to say something, but he doesn’t. He just stares, and anytime now, the younger is probably going to start crying, so it’s probably a better idea for him to leave.

“I should go,” he says finally, and gathers his things from the floor with clumsy movements. He hangs his string bag on one shoulder and walks quickly, trying to go around Kun to head for the door, but he’s stopped by the other’s fingers circling his wrist, grip tight. “Kun, please–”

“Look at me,” Kun says, voice quiet.

Ten shakes his head. “Can you not make this difficult?”

“Ten… Please.”

Ten takes a deep breath and turns back to look at his friend, and he can’t process anything else before Kun is directly in front of him, arms wrapping around him, fingers clutching at his back like he’s scared Ten will slip away.

“I _love_ you, Ten,” Kun says, and swallows. “I’m sorry. I should have realized how you felt. I should have realized how _I_ felt. I didn’t know, I thought… I thought feelings were out of the question, so I never... I should have thought about them sooner because, once I did, I realized I love you.”

It’s Ten’s turn to remain frozen.

He’s tense for only a moment before he melts into Kun’s touch, body betraying him. Kun noses along the column of his neck, presses a kiss to his jaw, the corner of his mouth. Ten holds his breath, eyes closed, as he feels the other’s soft lips against his.

He kisses him once, slow and uncertain.

Twice, soft and smooth.

Thrice, a growing rhythm.

"Hmm," Ten moans against his lips, feeling the way Kun cups his cheeks, the way every kiss is different from the ones they used to share a month ago. 

Kun kisses him with care, like he means it, like he doesn’t need for this to lead to anything else. Like he’s kissing him because he wants to. He leans in a little closer, their foreheads touching and, dear god, Ten almost wants to cry.

“Will you tell me again?” Kun asks against his lips, almost whispers.

“Tell you what?” 

“That you love me, too.” 

Ten hates him so fucking much.

“I love you. I’m in love with you. Have been for so long now,” he says through gritted teeth, so embarrassed his ears have turned red. “And fuck you.”

Kun smiles, in that exact way he always does when he wants to annoy Ten, when he’s teasing him, and Ten kisses back, because he’s been fucking conditioned to kissing Kun back when he kisses like this, deep and loving and addictive.

“I’m sorry,” Kun whispers into the space between their lips when they part. “I’m so fucking dumb,” he tells Ten, “I love you.”

Ten stutters on a breath, and Kun pulls him closer, gentle and careful, so he can press the tiniest of kisses to his lips, his cheeks, his nose, his forehead.

“I adore you,” Kun says, punctuating the last of the kisses. He presses his face to Ten’s neck and breathes in deeply. “You drive me crazy,” he says.

Ten is floored.

“I...” he starts to say, but he doesn’t get to finish his sentence because Kun just stretches up to kiss him again, and that is just as well, because Ten isn’t sure what he’s supposed to say, what he can say.

Kun gently pushes him against the wall, like he’s done a million times before. Ten could stop him. He could yank his hand back, or halt in his tracks. He’s not stronger than Kun is, but he’s more agile, and there’s no reason for him to be going along with this. 

Other than that he wants to.

Because, this time, there’s an evident tenderness, made even clearer when Kun doesn’t immediately reach for his dick or sink to his knees. Instead he rests his forehead against Ten’s and smiles, big and sunny and delighted. 

And in the next moment, Ten gets to taste that smile, and it’s so much more wonderful than he could’ve ever imagined.


End file.
